Ashton Kutcher as (Steve) jOBS premieres Jan 27 at Sundance

He's no Noah Wyle, but he certainly looks the part.

The first official photo of Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs was released this week, just as the Sundance Institute announced that the upcoming biopic jOBS would premiere as the closing film of its annual Sundance Film Festival on January 27. When it was revealed earlier this year that Kutcher would star in an independent film about Apple's iconic former CEO, there was some debate about whether or not he was a good choice for the role. The image released today suggests that he at least has the look down pat.

jOBS, directed by Michael Stern and written by Matt Whiteley, covers the "defining 30 years of Steve Jobs' life," and should prove to be a marked contrast to the Aaron Sorkin-penned film being produced by Sony Pictures. While that film plans to tell the story of Jobs' via three "behind the scenes" vignettes taking place during three of Jobs' most famous product introductions, jOBS promises to be a "candid, inspiring, and personal portrait of the one who saw things differently."

Compare the image above to this one of Steve Jobs in his cubicle at Apple in 1981.

Tony Korody

(Oddly, none of the upcoming films seem to be interested in a detailed look at the last decade or so of Jobs' life—that's a movie I'd personally like to see.)

Having long been fan of the 1999 made-for-TV movie Pirates of Silicon Valley, it's a bit hard to picture anyone playing Steve Jobs as well as actor Noah Wyle. Wyle was so convincing that he made a surprise cameo during Jobs' keynote at the 1999 Macworld Expo. But Kutcher certainly seems to look the part of Jobs in his younger days in the late '70s, complete with his anti-establishment longish hair and beard.

Ashton Kutcher from Kelso to Jobs. What a spread of character roles. He does look the part. I hope that this movie comes to Netflix.

An interesting fact about Ashton I looked up. I knew he was smart but did not how much. Ashton may have started out castrating livestock as a teenager and forged a career out of playing a stoned slacker, but he somehow managed to major in biochemical engineering at the University of Iowa.

Ashton Kutcher from Kelso to Jobs. What a spread of character roles. He does look the part. I hope that this movie comes to Netflix.

An interesting fact about Ashton I looked up. I knew he was smart but did not how much. Ashton may have started out castrating livestock as a teenager and forged a career out of playing a stoned slacker, but he somehow managed to major in biochemical engineering at the University of Iowa.

That blows my mind.

That being said, I'd really like to see this movie assuming of course it stays pretty factually on-target. Naturally, some bias always does creep in, but it would still probably be an interesting look into the times before computers became so mainstream that we can't imagine life without them.

Am I the only one who kept getting annoyed at the details different between those two photos? The watch, wrong font on the THINK poster, etc?

The lack of the shelf on the cube wall where the THINK poster is, as well as the lack of apple thing in front of it. Wrong pose for Jobs and jOBS. Wrong cube design. Actually, yeah, it was pretty hard to look at. Glad I'm not the only one.

Its all you! :-) I remember doing graphic design and page layout in the past and I was always annoyed and noticed if things were off by a pixel or two. Fonts were especially annoying when people selected the wrong serif or sans serif font and you could tell the difference though others would say that it was not much of a difference...

I think Ashton Kutcher makes perfect sense for the part. Somehow the way he plays an exasperated character seems just like how I picture Jobs when people aren't meeting his expectations. And he does look a fair bit like him. I also think he's an underrated actor who accepted many parts he shouldn't have.

They should just get Woz to play himself. Dye his beard, and you're done.

I very briefly considered that notion as well... and Woz may have a likeable personality and all, but the reality is: he isn't a trained actor, he's a computer geek. (Actually being yourself, as he did on Dancing with the Stars, is quite a bit different from "acting" where you have to remember lines, and all that rot.) As a computer geek myself, I imagine how I might react if asked to play myself in a Hollywood production... and while a part of me might be willing to consider going through with it, I expect my lack of training and poor memory would cause the director more headaches then I'd be worth.

That said... I think that a Stan Lee style cameo would pretty much make the movie, for me.

Pirates of Silicon Valley is one of the most gawdawful films I have ever seen. I showed it to my (now actor) son as an example of how NOT to make a film or tell a story. When he went to theatre school, he used it for his paper on "bad movies" and got an 'A'.

Pirates of Silicon Valley is one of the most gawdawful films I have ever seen. I showed it to my (now actor) son as an example of how NOT to make a film or tell a story. When he went to theatre school, he used it for his paper on "bad movies" and got an 'A'.

Pirates of Silicon Valley is one of the most gawdawful films I have ever seen. I showed it to my (now actor) son as an example of how NOT to make a film or tell a story. When he went to theatre school, he used it for his paper on "bad movies" and got an 'A'.

"Pirates of Silicon Valley" has an 86% rating from critics on rotten tomatoes.

I would say that most of the comments on here regarding ANYTHING are amusing, but, that would be dishonest.

Most of you couldn't do this project IF they gave you the money. All it is is about bellyaching and trying to be clever (font, the monitor, the sideburns, the move, Wyle, etc.) I remember when I was in grad. school and I would have to say that I probably was like this--never liked anything someone else was producing.

I grew up, maybe you will too, but then when YOU do something, you will have those "newbies" irritating you. I wish this feature of like/dislike was no longer available on any web sites. CNN is the worst, but don't get me wrong, those who write to ARS must want their fame too. EVERYTHING is so controversial but the difference is SOMEONE is actually doing something whereas in here, "doing something" means typing.

I noticed the glasses Ashton has. They're not quite as big & ugly huge as glasses were in the 70's. Job's glasses look bigger.

Like the cheek hair, slight tweaks to make the 70's not look quite so bad

(I had some big glasses in the 90's. My girlfriend called them "BCD's" - Birth Control Devices. She said that wearing them guaranteed I'd never have kids. Made me get new, smaller, modern ones. She was right - got lots more (positive) comments at work after that).